My impressions are the same as most people's, it seems: excellent first half in huge part thanks to Lady Kuroneko, shitty second half.

I love Kuroneko so much, love her silent character.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I was very impressed with the first half of this episode. The writers for this really did their homework, as a lot of the arguments and statements made in the first half look like something that could have been taken right off an Anime Suki discussion thread.

I also like how Meruru appears to be a homage to Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, with the same theme of "friendship through superior firepower", and 'sketchy' transformation scenes (as Kyousuke noted).

I agree with the consensus on the first half being very good.

The second half... honestly, if you take away the blood relationship of the two main characters, the dynamic between them reminds me an awful lot of the dynamic between Haruhi and Kyon. You have the same domineering all-around impressive female treating the "average" male lead like her slave and being very attached to him. You have Kyousuke reacting to Kirino's more extreme or weird requests exactly the same way Kyon would react to those of Haruhi. Honestly, the main thing that the second half of this episode made me think of was the filming of Haruhi's movie in Haruhi 2009.

Kirino's overall personality is a lot like Haruhi's, and I'm starting to see a lot of Kyon in Kyousuke.

Overall, it was an entertaining episode, but this anime is becoming very hard to take seriously. I can still find great value in it as pure comedy and spoof, but Kirino's character (and her relationship with Kyousuke) is really breaking suspension of disbelief now. She's now reached a degree of multifaceted expertise and unreal time management that is comparable to Batman.

8/10 is my final rating for this.

I feel this anime is rushing the development of the story & the characters.
And I agree with your post, Kirino reminds me Haruhi. But they are brother & sister